Oedipus The King Sophocles Research Paper

Sophocles was born around 496 B.C. In Athens, Greece. Due to the fact that his father was a wealthy merchant, Sophocles had an excellent education. He was elected twice to become a high ranking military officer. He then died around 406 B.C.

Throughout the play we find that Oedipus, the protagonist of this Greek tragedy, is tested by life in a number of ways. To those in Athens who watched the performance of Oedipus the King, Oedipus appeared to be the embodiment of a perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong-willed. Ironically, these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. He is portrayed as a character of

The work was written around 450 BC, a time of high Greek culture where literature and drama were placed at the forefront of society. Sophocles was a key player in this movement, and his plays were performed in a widespread area across ancient Greece and beyond. However, its popularity grew immensely as time went on, especially during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period, when the fascination with the arts and the accomplishments

plague of Thebes, a historical epidemic in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex." Emerging Infectious Diseases, 18(1): pp. 153-157. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3310127/. [Accessed on 24 September 2012].

Sophocles was a greek poet known for his greek tragedies, stories and plays popular all across Greece, and even have a strong influence on today’s culture. Tragedies, which was such a large form of amusement that men who were actors could get out of military service at the time. Sophocles is prominent for his plays: Ajax, Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. Despite the many plays he has made, the ones being distinguish here are Antigone and Oedipus the King. Antigone and Oedipus were tragic heroes. It is beneficial to know that Oedipus is Antigone’s father and sibling due to him unknowingly marrying his mother, Jocasta, and killing his own father Laius, committing

The play, Oedipus the King by Sophocles presents a grim hamartia caused from a terrible deed of long ago. Oedipus the protagonist is the powerful King of Thebes and held of high estate by the people of Thebes. As the terrible deed of Oedipus’s becomes apparent to both Oedipus and the City of Thebes his tragic flaw is slowly realized. The play will show “tragic power resides in human failing, hamartia, constantly underpinning any sense of the inevitable” (Walton). The play will show the author’s view of a tragic hero as seen in the play Oedipus the King does exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.

Oedipus is living in a dream from which he is only just beginning to awake. In this dream, he not only believes that he is in control of his own fate but that he is in control of his own identity. He assumes that he has three virtues: wisdom, reason, and self-control. When he attempts to use these virtues, however, he discovers that he is mistaken on all three counts. His first mistake is believing that he is wise. From this wisdom he hopes to maintain control over the events around him, but true wisdom is actually surrendering to the fact that control is an illusion, a "seeming." His second mistake is believing that he is a rational man. Indeed, Oedipus has great cognitive

Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, is a play about how Oedipus lives his fate to kill his father and marry his mother, and both are extremely bad in the Greek society, although he thinks he will get out of it. The Greek notions of high power of the gods and fate, Oedipus' primarily the result of King Laius' and the things he has done also attempts to defy the gods, consequently Sophocles states prophecies from the gods of someone's fate should never be ignored. Prophecies from the Oracle of Delphi are said to King Laius and Queen Jocasta, and to Oedipus. Sophocles said prophecies should not be ignored for a reason and when King Laius went to the Oracle of Delphi and got a prophecy that his child, Oedipus, was going to kill him and marry his

Throughout all of history, a common theme found in literature has been the idea of whether or not humans have the ability to determine their own futures or if each person has their life predetermined and nothing can be done to change that. The ancient Greeks were no different, and the play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles has this idea intertwined throughout the entire plot. The play revolves around a king named Oedipus who rules over the land of Thebes. Oedipus deals with a prophecy about him that he does all he can to avoid, but in doing so he inadvertently causes his fate to become reality. The play “Oedipus the King” demonstrates the fate versus freewill conflict based on how Ancient Greek culture viewed prophecy, and Oedipus’s prophecy and his attempt to prevent it which was ultimately unsuccessful.

Sophocles lived during the Golden Age of Greece. He is renowned as one of the greatest dramaticist of

Sophocles was born about 496 BC in Colonus Hippius which is now a part of Athens, Greece, he was to become one of the great playwrights of the golden age. Sophocles was the son of Laius and Jocasta, both wealthy in the city that Sophocles grew up in. Luckily, He was the son of a wealthy merchant, he would enjoy all the perks of a successful Greek empire. Sophocles was provided with the best education which would help him in many ways in the future of his life.

Sophocles was strong he was strong because he played a lot of strong parts. He was loved because many people loved his plays. Next he was inspiring to other people, and made many good quotes. He made this quote that included ; Without labor nothing prospers. One word Frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love I would

Throughout history, Sophocles has shown his intelligence to the world by writing complex plays. Even though only 7 out of 123 plays survived entirely, all remaining plays have shown unique complexity and plots. In addition to writing plentiful plays, Sophocles won first place at the festival of Dionysus twenty-four times. Since the competition required a tetralogy, Sophocles acquired a total of ninety-six first place award winning plays. Additionally, Sophocles managed to win seven second place awards at the festival of Dionysus. At the same time, Sophocles was correlated with the performance of Greek theater and introduced new things like the idea of painted scenery, variation in types of music, and an enlarged size of the cast.

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived through all of the years. He was born at Colonus, a village outside the walls of Athens, where his father, Sophillus, was an upscale manufacturer of armour. Sophocles was truly musically inclined which acquired him a good education while growing up. Sophocles was a famous Greek dramatist, with which he had major, along with minor dramatic innovations in his lifetime. One of Sophocles major innovations was his introduction of a third actor into the dramatic performances. He was regarded to have been an active participant in his community where he practiced his artistic flairs daily. Sophocles won many dramatic and literary achievements, and he never acknowledged lower

The son of Aglaos, Eratosthenes was born in 276 BC, in Cyrene. Now part of Eratosthenes was a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist. modern-day Libya. Cyrene became a place of cultivation, where knowledge blossomed. Eratosthenes would have studied in the local gymnasium, where he would have learned physical skills and social discourse as well as reading, writing, arithmetic, poetry, and music.[ Eratosthenes went to Athens to further his studies. There he was taught Stoicism by its founder, Zeno of Citium, in philosophical lectures on living a virtuous life. [9] He then studied under Ariston of Chios, who led a more cynical school of philosophy. He also studied under the head of the Platonic Academy, who was Arcesilaus